Stella Oduah forged MBA degree, says
Saharareporters
January 6, 2014 • By pmnews
Stella Oduah, Nigeria's minister of aviation faces a
fresh integrity scrutiny over her claim that she
obtained an MBA degree from an American
university.
A Saharareporters report today said her claim has
been punctured by the United States school which
supposedly awarded it.
"Her resume, which she presented to the Senate as a
ministerial nominee in 2011, indicated she obtained
a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA)
from St. Paul's College Lawrenceville, Virginia, United
States.
"But SaharaReporters has learned from the President
of the college that it has never in its 125-year history
had a graduate school or graduate program.
•Stella Oduah: another integrity question over her
MBA degree
"The Provost Vice President of Academic Affairs, and
the Vice President of Institutional Development said
in response to our inquiries, "We don't offer any
graduate programs here."
"Similarly, the school's website states: "Saint Paul's
College is accredited by the Commission of Colleges
of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
to award baccalaureate [bachelor's] degrees." There
is no mention of graduate degrees.
"The Minister's documentation shows she received
an undergraduate degree in accounting from the
college in 1982, but Dr. Claud Flythe, St. Paul's
current president, could neither confirm nor deny
this during a phone conversation with
SaharaReporters. Further verification with the Office
of Alumni Affairs is also currently impossible, the
school said, because the college has been closed
since June 2013 to loss of its accreditation.
"[Oduah] realized very early in life the
indispensability of a sound education in her growth
plans in life and therefore pursued her education
with all diligence and sense of purpose," her
documents claimed, adding that a determination "to
have the best education at the highest level"
prompted her stay at the Virginia college in 1983 for
the MBA programme.
"As her public relations machinery marched on, in
December 2012 The Sun newspaper published an
article headlined "Stella Oduah: An Amazon of
transformation," which lauded her "MBA from St
Paul's College, Lawrenceville Virginia USA." The story
also praised her for being an official who brought her
"rich educational background to bear on the aviation
sector by automating revenue centers in all the
agencies and parastatals to boost their revenue
profile and enhance transparency and accountability
in the system."
SaharaReporters similarly broke in October, the story
that Mrs. Oduah, a former campaign manager for
President Goodluck Jonathan, purchased two
bulletproof BMW cars worth $ 1.6 Million (N255m)
through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, for her
own use.
The House of Representatives, after a probe of the
scandalous purchase, has asked President Jonathan
to 'review her status' as minister, another way of
saying that she should be sacked.